Food hygiene complaints
Food premises
Food premises are routinely inspected for food safety and hygiene. The environmental health service also investigate complaints about food premises linked to food safety and hygiene. Complaints might include:
- People smoking in kitchens, storerooms or preparation rooms
- Pets or animals in kitchens, store rooms or preparation rooms
- Sightings of vermin or pests on food premises
- Poor levels of cleanliness in kitchens, store rooms or preparation rooms
- Poor food handling practices
- Undercooked food
- Large accumulations of food waste
Complaints regarding the quality of food, standard of décor in dining areas, pets outside food preparation cannot be investigated.
Make a food hygiene complaintItems of food
Whilst food is generally manufactured to high standards, occasionally things go wrong.
If you find an unacceptable object in your food, you should leave the item as found within the food.
If the food is perishable and you can't bring it to us before the use by date, please freeze the food in your freezer and bring it to us frozen.
Alternatively you can complain directly to the manufacturer or retailer.
Food businesses usually have systems in place to protect against things going wrong. We will investigate to try to establish what went wrong. The business must demonstrate to us that procedures were in place to manage food safety.
Note: We are unable to assist with any civil claim you wish to make against a business.
Food poisoning
Sickness and diarrhoea can be symptoms of food poisoning and other illnesses. It can be hard to trace the source of food poisoning particularly if only one person has been unwell however it's important to let us know especially if several people have been ill.
We will ask you to submit a stool sample to your doctor to get medical help. The sample can be tested to confirm whether you have food poisoning or something else.
The results of your sample will be notified to your GP and if you have food poisoning your local authority will be notified by the UKHSA too.
Knowing the type of food poisoning that you have will be crucial to our investigation.